NAIDOC in the City is held in Hyde Park in the heart of Sydney’s bustling CBD and has grown to become one of the most unique gatherings and celebrations to occur in the city each year.
It holds a special place in our hearts given that we have produced this event alongside the City of Sydney since 2015. Prior to that, much of our team were responsible for producing the earlier NAIDOC in the City events while working with the Deadly Vibe Group, including the inaugural event in 2013.
We are thrilled with the fact that after almost a decade of involvement and working to grow this event, NAIDOC in the City now regularly draws crowds of up to 10 000 people.
Festival activities include Aboriginal culture workshops, an arts and crafts and Indigenous goods marketplace, sports clinics including Indigenous games, traditional Aboriginal dance performances and workshops, food cooked in a traditional earth oven on site, live cooking demonstrations, and live music performances from Australia’s most talented Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander musicians.
Our work on NAIDOC in the City begins with developing the creative concept related to that years national NAIDOC theme. This involves ongoing discussions with the City of Sydney on how to best incorporate aspects related to that years theme into the festival program.
From there we can began to engage designers and artists to create that year’s event branding.
We have direct involvement with all copy writing for all materials, including flyers, posters, banners, and installations used at the event.
A huge part of the project is securing participants for the events knowledge and culture program, and managing the stalls marketplace, where a diverse range of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander businesses come to sell and showcase their products.
Essential to running a successful event each year is booking talent for the live music stage and arranging transport and accomadation.
Along the way, we develop and nurture strong relationships with a vast array of stakeholders, from community, to government to corporate organisations.
We provide marketing assistance to the City of Sydney, develop site signage, develop and produce promotional materials and event programs, manage sponsorship and budgets, and manage on site dignitaries, including Elders.
And of course, there’s all the fun on the day coordinating a bustling event with many moving parts and simultaneous activations, and making sure everything is running smoothly.
We pay our deep respects to the Gadigal peoples, the traditional owners of the lands upon which we have been privilege to stage this event, and also send out a warm acknowledgement to the City of Sydney for their support of First Nations cultural celebration and sharing.
